


After the Battle

by Laci_Taleweaver



Category: The Legend of Zelda series, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Genre: Angst, LIKE EVER, Link isn't normal, Time Travel, broken hero, just not effing worth it, just seriously don't travel through time kids, or have your sister kidnapped by pirates, or turn into a wolf, or your relationships, picking up the pieces, short episodic fics, time travel is NOT good for your brain
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-19
Updated: 2017-07-05
Packaged: 2018-09-18 15:43:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9391994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laci_Taleweaver/pseuds/Laci_Taleweaver
Summary: After saving Hyrule, the various Links have to get used to normalcy.  This is not easy when you've been a hero from an early age.  Jumps back and forth between the eras of various Zelda games.





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1  
Era of the Hero of Time--Adult Timeline

Princess Zelda finished playing the notes that would send Link back to his own time. She sighed. It was all over at last. Ganondorf had been defeated, and his castle fallen. The beast known as Ganon had been sealed away, hopefully forever. And now, the Hero of Time had been returned to his past, to enjoy the youth that his destiny had taken from him.

She would miss Link. Traveling alongside him as Shiek had been--well, not exactly _fun_ , but she had enjoyed his company and would always view the young hero as a friend. And now, it was possible she may have just split time, in which case she would never see him again. Still, she knew she had done the right thing. Link wasn't ready for the adult world. Emotionally, he was still a child of ten.

The sages called her attention back to the real world. Hyrule was safe, and would remain so for years to come. It was time to rebuild her kingdom, so that her people would once again feel secure and protected.

\------------------------------------

Era of the Hero of Time--Child Timeline  
Clock Town, Termina

Link relaxed and enjoyed the festival. He'd put in several weeks' worth of work in the last 3 days, saving this parallel world from an evil mask and a lunar collision. Now, he was watching as Anju walked down the aisle in her wedding dress. Skull Kid had agreed to change Kafei back into an adult, but didn't seem to have enough magic anymore. Anju had tried to comfort them by saying that seeing her love as a grown man again would be worth the wait. There had been a fair bit of gossip about the fact that, technically, a grown woman was marrying a little boy, but Kafei had always been well-loved for his outgoing personality and impeccable character, so it never reached the level of scandal that the mayor's son had feared. It still would have been better, though, if Skull Kid had been able to change Kafei back.

Poor Skull Kid. He'd been into minor mischief before finding Majora's Mask, but he'd never been outright evil. Theft was the worst thing he'd gotten into, and really, the mask was the first thing of real value he'd ever stolen. Skull Kid was deeply ashamed of the things he'd done under the mask's power. He may not have killed anybody directly, but he'd sown disaster throughout the land of Termina, and come terribly close to destroying the world by pulling down the moon. The four giants forgave him, but most other people would take a long time to come around.

It seemed nowadays that the only people who really understood Link were Navi and the Skull Kid. Navi, because she'd been with him on his long, strange journey as the Hero of Time. Skull Kid, because as an immortal being, the imp knew what it was like to be treated like a child when you didn't really feel like you were one anymore.

Link still wasn't quite certain what he was. On the one hand, he'd never had any adult relationships, or experienced adolescence. He'd never known what it felt like to gradually go from boy to man. But on the other hand, he _had_ been an adult for several months, from his perspective. He'd been thrust into an adult role, forced to fight for the fate of an entire realm, while still being a child on the inside. And just when he'd gotten used to navigating the adult world, he had to go back to being a child again, and never being taken seriously by adults anymore. He'd been lucky that the King had listened to the combined warning of himself and Zelda, just in time to prevent Ganondorf from invading Hyrule--again? For the first time? Time travel was _weird._

Most people were astonished by his skill with a sword, saying that he was on par with a lad of seventeen--but few would believe that he'd _been_ a lad of seventeen not so long ago. Hmm. Maybe Kafei would understand what he was going through. It would be better than when he met Saria after returning to the past, and realized that she was not a Sage, but the carefree girl he'd known before--with **_no memory at all_** of helping to cleanse the Forest Temple or seal Ganon away. They were still friends, but Link couldn't talk to Saria about his adventures without it feeling like a fictional story. And he knew that it wasn't. Link frowned.

"What's wrong, Link?" asked Tatl, who'd also come to the wedding. Her brother Tael was in the woods near Woodfall Swamp, trying to cheer up Skull Kid.

"Nothing. Just...thinking about how hard life is sometimes."

"Yeah," Tatl replied, mistakenly thinking Link was talking about Anju and Kafei. "Those two are going to have a rough road ahead of them, at least until Kafei grows back up."

"Sometimes I think the gods do things like that just to play a trick on people." Link knew he shouldn't be bitter at the gods for doing what was necessary to save Hyrule, but really, they could have just made him be born seven years earlier, or something. And what had happened to Anju and Kafei just wasn't fair.

"I hope not," Tatl said, "or that'd make them even worse than the Skull Kid when he had on that mask."

"I guess all we can do then," mused Link, "is hope everything works out okay in the end, even if things are hard for a long time."

"It's certainly better than having no hope at all."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N Kids, what Link does here is called stalking, and it's NOT cool. (Don't worry, he learns better.) Please don't stalk people. It's creepy.

Chapter 2  
Era of Twilight--Hyrule Castle  
  
    Zelda sighed.  Ever since the Twilight Mirror had been broken, life in Hyrule had gone back to normal for most people.  She had treaties to sign, deals to broker between nations, court cases to judge.  Basically, she was a normal ruler of a normal country again.  The damage to the castle from Ganon's rampage had been repaired.  There was really little that had changed, overall, unless you counted the success of Malo Mart, which nobody had seen coming.

  
    Link hadn't been the same, however.  He and a girl named Ilia had been very close.  But her capture by Bulbins had left Ilia with traumatic amnesia, and she remembered little about Link or their relationship.  Ilia's view of Link had gone from "the man I might marry some day" to "a very nice young man who rides a horse and came from my home village."  It had been a devastating emotional blow to Link.

    The Hero of Twilight was in Faron Woods lately, in his wolf form.  He didn't want to be around people much.   Zelda would go out to the woods with a small escort, sometimes, to try to coax Link out of his shell.  But for now, it seemed that the young hero needed time to mourn the Ilia that had been.  
  
\----------------------------------------  
  
    Link walked down to the pond at the outskirts of Ordon Village.  A familiar scent met his heightened wolf senses almost immediately.  Ilia was there, washing Epona and brushing her mane.  The hero paused in the rushes, where he could blend in with the shadows.  It wouldn't do for him to be seen in this form--Ilia would scream and raise the alarm, and the villagers would chase him out of his former home.  But what would he say to her if he were human, anyway?  She wasn't the Ilia he knew anymore.  The Ilia he loved.  
  
    She hummed one of the songs Link used to hum on grass whistles.  Did Ilia remember where she'd first heard the tune?  Or was it just a disconnected memory?  Either way, she still had the same sweet voice she always had, and it hurt to listen to it, but Link couldn't seem to make himself walk away.  
    Both of them had changed a lot since the day Talo was kidnapped.  Link could change forms at will, but didn't see much point in being human lately.  It wasn't as if he could just wave a magic wand and have his old life back, so why bother being in his old form when he didn't have to be?  Easier to just be a lone wolf and hide in the woods.  After all, there was no hope of getting his old relationship with Ilia back.  No hope at all.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Link in Clock Town goes in search of some good advice. (Chapter unfinished--I have writer's block, but i do want to assure you I haven't forgotten this story!)

Era of the Hero of Time--Child Timeline

Clock Town, Termina

   Link still felt a bit self-conscious about going to talk to Kafei about the whole being-a-child-but-not-feeling-like-one thing. Tatl and Tael offered to go with him, if it would help put him at ease.  
   "Thanks, guys, but I think I should do this alone, just so it's more private. You can come with me to the door, though." Link smiled at his fairy friends. They didn't treat him or Skull Kid differently just because they were children. They cared for him because he was their friend, and a good person. _Like Navi did...I wonder where she is?_  
   Link walked up to the Stock Pot Inn, smiling at the sounds of laughter and the faint chiming of fairy wings. Kafei had moved in with his wife, since the Mayor had felt a little weird about his son living in his childhood bedroom, as a child again, with a woman.  
   The young hero took a deep breath, let it out, then opened the door.


End file.
